A levél történeti forrásértéke. A közös külügyminisztérium tisztviselőinek levelei
The Value of the Letter as a Historical Source. The Letters of the Officials in the Common Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Summary/Abstract: The letters offer an insight into several aspects of the life of these offi cials. Yet their chief value consists in the basis they provide for determining social and national identity. If the officials in the common governmental institutions did have a social identity, it was marked by a considerable degree of uncertainty: the letters reflect both a characteristic harmony and conflict between the official and the citizen, as well as between the official and the gentleman. There was only one fixed element in this social ambivalence, namely unconditional personal relationship, the intimate tone of the correspondence. An exchange of political ideas was only possible between persons of the same rank. National identity, like social identity, was a concept without fixed contours, in the state of constant flux. The importance of the correspondence among the officials in the common institutions resides in the very fact that each author construes his own concept of national identity in the course of writing, a construction made possible by the preoccupation of the adressee with the same ideas. The letters thus give an insight into the very process by which identity was formed and elevated to a conscious level.

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